Firefly emerges as intriguing music festival of summer; DJs blend in wide-ranging billing

Festival season is nearly two months away from its early beginning in March, but the buzz has hardly begun. Not limited to Miami (where Ultra will kick-start the run of events), or any of the high-profile destinations from Indio to Las Vegas, the span of North America’s East Coast is receiving much of the preliminary attention. Between the inaugural stateside Mysteryland in Bethel Woods, New York to Counterpoint in rural Georgia, Delaware’s Firefly Music Festival is building up to be one of the season’s more unique events.

4 days, 7 stages, and 100 artists is only the beginning of Firefly’s intrigue. Now, the Dover-based affair has announced its official lineup, comprised of wide-ranging talents and performers of all genres. OutKast, Foo Fighters, and Jack Johnson are presented as the extended weekend’s stars, but that’s hardly the beginning of the must-see acts. Pretty Lights is among the profiled artists such as Imagine Dragons, but Firefly’s strongest pull comes deeper into the roster. A-Trak, Cash Cash, and Martin Garrix balance out the likes of Third Eye Blind and Ziggy Marley before the lineup becomes a free-for-all of exploring new sounds and new artists. Goldroom is among the names of to-be-discovereds, but it’s that pool of low-profile artists, electronic or not, that make Firefly one of this summer’s more interesting pulls.